Concentrator



4leA'rENT-Bn JAN. 5. 1904.

L. R. TULLOGH. GONCBNTRATOR.' A PPLLGAT'ION FILED FEB. 24, 1903.

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`1 ATENTBD JAN. 5, 1904. L. R. TULLooH. CONGBNTRATOR.

APPLIGATION v FILED 1FEI. 24, 1903.-

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WITNESSES.-

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No; 748,819. PATENTED JAN. 5, 1904,. L. R. TULLOCH.

CONGENTRATUR.

APPLIGATION FILED PEB. 24. 190s,

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WJTNESSES gg BWM/V A I N Vgzuw M746- No. 748,819. PATBNTEDVJAN. 5, 1904.

f L. R. TULLOGH.

GONGBNTRATOR.

APPLIGATIQN FILED FEB. 24. .1903.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 4.

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i UNITED v STATES Patented January 5, 1904.

PATENT OFFICE.

CONCENTRATOR.

SPECIFICATION forming part Of Letters Patent NO. 748,819, dated January5, 1904.

' Application file d lielnnary'24I4 1903- Serial No. 144,708. (Nomodel.) n

To all whom it may concern,.-

Be it known that I, LOUIS R. TULLocH, a citizen of the United States,residing at Angels Camp, in the county of Calaveras and State ofCalifornia, have invented certain new and useful Improvements inConcentrators, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to improvements in concentrators, the object of myinvention being to provide a concentrator for concentrating preciousmetals in ore received from stamp-mills, rollermills, or otherwise,which shall be more efficient, of greater capacity, and more economicalin the power used thany those heretofore in use.

Y In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a plan view of theconcentrator, certain parts being broken away. 'Fig 2 is a side View ofthe same. Fig. 3 is an enlarged longitudinal section through the rearpart of the machine, showing the shaker ,and settlingboxes. A A of Fig.3. Fig. 5 is an enlarged section on the line B B of Fig. 2. Fig. 6 isadetail perspective View of one of the grip-arms. Fig. 7 is a plan viewof the segment gearplate detached. Fig. 8 is a cross-section of thesame, broken, on the line C C of Fig. 7.

Referring to the drawings, the base ofthe.

machine comprises the longitudinal sills 1 and the end sills 2. Uponsaid end sills are erected the posts 3, uponthe upper endsV of whichvaresupported the side bars 4 of the frame of the machine, and upon saidside bars are secured end bars 5 of said.frame.

The main shaft 6 of thedevice is mounted in` hearings 7, secured ruponthe posts on one side of the machine, and is driven Yby a pulley 8 fromany suitable source of power. Upon said main lshaft are mounted theusual eccentrics, Working in collars 9, attached byY Fig. 4 is across-section on the line preferred, these pillars may be screwed intothe sill itself. By screwing the pillars the height of either end of thetable can be ad- Vj usted.

By means of the rotary motion of the main shaftY and the eccentrics alateral rocking "motion .is thus imparted to the belt-frame.

and at their front ends to the side bars of the belt-frame, forApreventing rearward or downward longitudinal movement of the frame whenit is being shaken.

The rear roller 22 is an idle roller; but the front roller 21 is securedupon ashaft 28,

upon which is ixedly secured by a set-screwr 29 a collar 30, having idlearms 31, connected at their ends to a ring 32. Within this ring work thefriction-grips, as hereinafter eX- plained. The shaft 28 is continuedthrough said ring, and upon' the end thereof is loosely mounted aneccentricsleeve 33, upon which.

'is xedly secured by a set-screw 34 a collar 35, having a crank-arm v36,adjustably connected, as shown at 37, with a pitman 38, the rear end of4which .is connected to a wristpin 39 upon the end of acrank 40,extending from the counter-shaft 41. Said countershaft-is driven bymeans of--a pulley 42 and belt 43 from a pulley 44 upon the rear end ofthemain shaft.` The crank 36 being consid- Aerably longer than-the crank40, it results that the rotation of the counter-shaftimparts a rockingmotion to said crank 36 and also to the eccentricsleeve 33. Upon theinner end of said eccentric-sleeve is secured to rock l therewith thehub of a plate 45, having formed thereon diametricallyoppositesegment-gears 46. These gears rock with the eccentric loosely within theinner surface of the ring 3 2. The rocking motion of said plate andsegment-gears is communicated to said ,ring by means of grips,consisting each of a shoe IOC 47, secured to a grip-plate 48. Mounted inI nions of a nut 50. Within said nut Works a bearings 49 on eachgrip-plate are the trunscrew 51, formed on a stem 52, the inner end ofwhich is revolubly mounted in a radial arm 53. The inner ends of thesearms are carried by collars 54, which surround the eccentric, one ofsaid collars being single and the other bifurcated, as shown. Therocking of the eccentric in one direction thus has a tendency to movesaid arms in and out, one arm always moving inward while the other movesoutward. Upon said stems 52 are revolubly carried pinions 55, whichengage the teeth of the segmental gears, and said pinions have segmentalhubs or extensions 56, which contact with lugs 57, formed upon the stemsof the screws, and impart rotation thereto. It will readily be seen thata rotation imparted to one of said screws in one direction will byturning the screw into the nut 50 withdraw the shoe from the innersurface of the ring and permit'said shoe to move freely within saidinner surface independently of the ring, while by turning the screw inthe other direction the nut will move outwardly from said screw, thusforcing the surface of the shoe against the inner surface of the ringand causing it to firmly grip the same. The shoe is thus caused to gripsaid ring from two causes: rst, the outward motion of the arm as awhole, due to the rotation of the eccentric within the collar, and,secondly, on account of the turning of the screw, thus causing the nutsto move outwardly.

For the better understanding of the operation of this part of themachine it will be preferable to consider first the action of each armby itself, and it may be first stated that the operation of the rear armis to impart to the belt an intermittent forward movement, while theaction of the front arm is to impart to the belt an intermittentbackward movement; vfurthermore, that each of `these arms may be thrownout of. operation at will or both may be operated. In the latter casethey transmit their motion to the ring alternately and a reciprocatingmovement is given to the belt. Considering first the movement of therear arm and supposing that the crank is in its lowestposition and israised rearwardly, the effect is, first, by means of the eccentric tomove the rear` arm rearwardly away from the center of the shaft, thuscausing the shoe 47 to come closerto the inner surface of the ring.Next, the rear segmentgear will ascend with the crank and in its ascentwill cause the pinion gearing therewith to rotate, and by the extensionfrom the pinion striking the lug upon the screw-stem the rotation of thepinion will be imparted to the screw-stem, and since the screw is arighthanded screw and by the rotation of the pinion is revolved in aleft-handed direction this will have the effect of drawing the screw outof the nut or, in other words, forcing the nut out upon the screw andpressing the shoe of the grip against the surface of the ring. This willcause said shoe to grip said ring with great pressure and willimmediately clamp the same, so that the ring will be carried upward withthe segment-gear and a movement in a forward direction will be impartedto the belt. As soon as the crank-arm stops and begins to return theeccentric begins to draw the arm inwardly and also the segmentgearbegins to return. It then immediately imparts a right-handed rotarymovement to the pinion, which causes the screw to screw into the nut orthe nut to be drawn onto the screw, thus withdrawing the shoe from itspressure upon the inner surface of the ring and allowing the arm to dropfreely by gravity, so that the backward movement of the cran k-arm isnot accompanied by a backward movement of the belt. In like manner theupward and rearward movement of the front segment-gear will cause thecorresponding shoe to engage the ring and move it backward, while uponits return movement the shoe will be released from the ring, so that nocorresponding forward movement of the belt will take place. Since theoperative movement of each segment-gear is its movement in an upwarddirection and since when the rear segment-gear is moving upward thefront one is moving downward, and vvice versa, it follows that theseopposing movements cannot act simultaneously, but they must necessarilyact alternately. When both arms are operating, the belt will moveforward and backward alternately. To limit the amount of eithermovement, I provide a stop 60, preferably formed of two rubber blockssupported upon an arm 6l, pivotally mounted around the eccentric 33 andhaving another arm 62 extending to the opposite side of the ring andthen bent across the face of a curved rack 64, said bent portion havinga spring-actuated dog 65, which can be arranged to engage any of theteeth of said rack, thus adjusting the angular position of the stop.When the stop is placed in its lowest position, the corresponding arm isgiven its greatest amplitude of motion and the maximum movement isimparted to the ring, and when the stop is raised to its highestposition the motion of the arm is not suficient to close the grip uponthe ring. In the latter case the arm is rendered inoperative to turnsaid ring or to move the belt.

Generally it will be necessary that the rear stop shall be lower thanthe front stop, thus IOC) IZO

giving a greater amplitude of motion to the rear arm than to the frontarm, the effect of which will be to give a greater forward than backwardmotion to the belt, so that there will be resultant progressive movementto the belt. Occasionally, however, it is necessary to move the beltbackward-as, for instance, when there is an overflow of sand and wateron the sulfurets. In formermachines this has been done by hand, vbutwith my apparatus it can be done by throwing out of operation the reararm, the eect of which will be that there vwill be no forward movementof the belt and thefront arm only will operate, thus moving the beltbackward.

An important feature of my invention re,

sides in the fact that in Athe same apparatus considerable preliminarytreatment is given to the ore before it is treated by the belt. For thispurpose I provide a shaker-box 70,

lhaving rollers 7l mounted upon the ends of Asaid rear bar havingadjustably secured thereon a roller 80, which is engaged in successionby a series of cams 81 upon the edge of a roller 82 upon thecounter-shaft 41. I have herein shown four such cams; but the number maybe varied at pleasure to suit different conditions. A spring 83, coiledaround said shakerbar and compressed between the bearing 79 and theconnection of said bar with the rear wall of the shaker-box, returnssaid box' forward when it has been pressed back by one of said cams.Thus the revolution of said counter-shaft imparts a rapidforwardand-backward movement to the shaker-box. Over said box andmounted upon the sides thereof is secured a feed-trough 84, having aseries of feed-holes 85, and upon said trough again are mounted hoppers86, into which the ore is fed. Each hopper is provided with ay series ofholes corresponding in number with the number of tables whichgare usedin the'shaking box. I have in the present instance shown three suchtables; but less or more may be used, as may be desired. One of theseholes 87 in each hopper-the one in the present instance nearest thefront of the machine-discharges the ore into the trough 84, and from thetrough the ore is distributed through the feed-holes 85 upon the uppertable 88. The second hole 89 in each trough discharges onto the secondor next lower table 90. The third hole 91 in each trough dis` chargesonto bottom 77, which forms the third table. Under the first and secondtables are provided plates lOl,one corresponding to each dischargeopening through said table. The object of these plates is to distributeevenly onto the next lower table the ore which is discharged through thetable above. For this purpose each plate is arched or convex upward, sothat the material tends to ilow to its sides. The material isintercepted by longitudinal slots 102 and drops through said slots ontothe table below it. Any material which fails to drop through the slotnearest to the discharge opening will pass outward and drop through thenext slot, thus evenly distributing the material onto the table to whichit is intended to be fed. The ore is thus distributed on a plurality oftables, all

of which are being shaken at the same time..

4These tables all slope rearwardly, so that the water and the lighterparticles of the material being fed dow ed said tables to the rear,while .the sulfnrets and heavier particles are by their greater specificgravity shaken or moved in a forward direction. They are thus graduallyfed forward, the sulfurets and heavier particles from the upper tablebeing fed over the front edge of said upper table onto the next lowertable,'

and so on to the third or'lowest table'. From said lowest table all ofthe particles thus separated by their gravity fall through aslot oropening 92 between the-edge of the bottom 77 and the front side 75 ofthe box and drop rinto a delivery-trc'mgh` 93, from which they are fedwithout splashing by means ot' an apron 94 onto the concentrator-belt.The particles which have not been thus separated and delivered directlyonto the concentratorbelt pass to the rear and are discharged over therear edges of the several tables into the rear compartment of asettling-box 94, supported on the belt-frame. Said settling-box isdivided by transverse partitions 95 into compartments, as shown, eachcompartment extending the width of the box. These partitions extendentirely to the top and bot-' tom alternately. Therefore the materialfed into the first compartment escapes therefrom underneath the bottomof the first partition; then, the second partition not extending to thefull height of the sides ot' the box, the material escapes from thesecond compartment over the second partition; then under the thirdpartition, and so on. During the whole Aof this time the settling-box,resting upon the belt-frame, has the same motion as said frame-that isto say, a transverse reciprocating motion. This has the effect ofcausing the heavier particles to settle down in the tlrst compartment,while the lighter particles iiow on to the next compartment. Thus theheavier particles find their way to the bottoms of the severalcompartments. They escape therefrom through slots 96 in the bottom ofthe settling-box and are discharged on the concen-trator-belt. Theseslots may be varied in width to suit the feed by means of an adjustableplate 97, which lies on the bottom of the settling-box and has slots 98corresponding to the slots in said bottom, and by adjusting the positionof said plate forward or backward the openings through which the heavyparticles can drop will be enlarged or diminished, as desired. Theresidue which Hows into the last compartment, the one to the front-ofthe machine, will iiow into a discharge-trough 99, which discharges atthe side of the machine.

IIO

IZG

In order to prevent the material from packit in a loose condition. Thus,first, by means of the shakingtables, and, secondly, by means of thesettling-box, all of the ore is treated before being delivered to theconcentrator-belt, so that a great part of the work is already donebefore the belt begins to operate upon the ore. For this reason a muchgreater amount of material can be treated and much more economicallythan with previous forms of concentrators.

In front of the feed-trough 84 is provided a pipe 103 with perforations104 for the purpose of distributing a supply of clear water to theseveral tables to assist in separating the sulfurets and other particlesfrom the debris.

105 represents the usual water-box, supported upon the frame over thebelt and having the usual perforations 106 for permitting the water toflow onto the belt.

I claim- 1. In aconcentrator,the combination ofthe belt, means foroscillating the same, a percussion-box, means operated with theoscillating means for shaking the box longitudinally of the belt, saidbox comprising a hopper into which the material is fed, a verticalseries of tables onto which the material is successively distributed,and individual longitudinallyslotted plates above said tables fordistributing the material evenly over the tables, substantially asdescribed.

2. In a concentrator,the combination of the belt, means for oscillatingthe same, a percussion-box, means operated with the oscillating meansfor shaking the box longitudinally of the belt, said box comprising ahopper into which the material is fed, a vertical series of tables ontowhich the material is successively distributed, and individuallongitudinallyslotted arched plates above said tables for distributingthe material evenly over the tables, substantially as described.

3. In a concentrator,the combination of the belt, and means forimparting oscillat-ion thereto, of a-percussion-box arranged to feed thematerial upon the belt, and operated with the oscillating means, saidshaker-box comprising afeed-hopper for feeding the material, and aseries of tables, said hopper having at its bottom independent chutesleading to the several tables, and slotted plates at the bottom of saidchutes for distributing the material onto the tables, substantially asdescribed.

4. In a concentrator, the combination of the belt, and means forlimparting oscillation thereto, of a percussion-box arranged to feed theore upon the belt, and operated with the.

oscillating means, said percussion-box comprising a feed-hopper forfeeding the material, and a vertical series of tables, said hopperhaving at its bottom independent chutes,

` each leadingr to a corresponding table through the tables, above it,of the series, substantially as described.

5. In aconcentrator,the combination with a belt, and means foroscillating the same, of a shaking settling-box divided by transversepartitions into compartments, said partitions extending entirely to thetop and bottom alternately whereby the material is compelled to travelin a vertically-zigzag path through the compartments, said box havingslots in its bottom discharging onto the concentratorbelt, and bars inthe compartments extending longitudinally of the machine to prevent thematerial from packing, substantially as described.

6. In a concentrator,the combination ofthe traveling belt,means foradvancing the same, means for oscillating the same,a shaking box intowhich the material is fed, means operated with the oscillating means forimparting alongitudinal movement to said shaking box, said shaking boxcomprising a series of tables onto which the material is fed from thehoppers, said tables discharging at one end upon the concentrator-belt,and a settlingbox into which the tables discharge at their other endcomprising a series of compartments divided by transverse partitions,extending entirely to the top and bottom alternately whereby thematerial travels through said compartments in a vertically-zigzag path,the bottom of said settling-box having slots for discharging onto theconcentrator-belt, substantially as described.

In witness whereot` I have hereunto set my hand in 4the presence of twosubscribing witnesses.

LOUIS R. TULLOGH.

IOC

